News – February 2020

I welcome today’s announcement that an understanding has been reached on a significant reduction in violence across Afghanistan.
This is a critical test of the Taliban’s willingness and ability to reduce violence, and contribute to peace in good faith.
This could pave the way for negotiations among Afghans, sustainable peace, and ensuring the country is never again ...

A female supporter of the Islamic State terror group has pleaded guilty to plotting to bomb St Paul’s Cathedral and a hotel.
Safiyya Amira Shaikh, 36, from Hayes, Middlesex, admitted preparation of terrorist acts and dissemination of terrorist publications at a hearing at the Old Bailey.
Shaikh, a Muslim convert, had contacted someone who could prepare explosives ...

Banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) on Thursday detonated an IED blast in West Khasi hills district in Meghalaya.
Security guards in a coke factory at Kyllon Mathei village near Riangdo in West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya were caught panicky with the explosion on Thursday.
The IED was detonated at around 1:15 am, sources informed, adding ...

An explosive device has been found outside the home of a brother of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane, Sinn Féin said.
Martin Finucane is also the uncle of the party’s MP John Finucane.
Army technical officers examined the object in the front garden of the house in west Belfast and declared it to be the remnants of a ...

A soldier lost his leg, and two of his colleagues are missing after their convoy ran into an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by suspected Boko Haram insurgents in Korongilum, a community in Chibok local government area of Borno state.
The soldiers were deployed on Wednesday morning as a part of a quick response group (QRG) ...

Al-Shabab has attacked two Somali military bases using an explosive-laden vehicle driven by a suicide bomber along with dozens of heavily-armed fighters.
At least 12 Somali soldiers were killed in the attack on Wednesday, and the attackers briefly captured a base southwest of the capital, officials said, underscoring the group’s ability to launch attacks despite a ...

A dog who was pulled from rubble in a Syrian war-zone as a terrified puppy by a bomb disposal expert has been announced as a finalist for Crufts.
Former Royal Engineer Sean Laidlaw was working as a bomb disposal expert in Syria when he heard whimpering from the wreckage of a school that had exploded and ...

UK Army, currently based in Maiduguri, Borno State Nigeria wishes to purchase IED detectors to enable clearance of IEDs that target civilians and military personnel indiscriminately.
Clearance of IEDs enable compounds to be repopulated by civilians and clearance of roads enables their safe use by military, civilian and NGO.
Read more…
Source: GOV.UK

Massachusetts State Police says it is all too aware of the danger of homemade explosives and booby traps. The ongoing concern about hidden lethal devices prompted the FBI, Boston and State Police to offer awareness training recently for regional SWAT teams.
Trooper Michael Szawlowski with the MSP bomb squad told the I-Team that the SWAT teams ...

Key point: Insurgents and weak forces with low budgets often come up with improvised weapons to maximize damage. That includes both suicide attacks and armored vehicles.
In the early 2000s, the video game Command & Conquer: Generals included a playable terrorist faction which could build kamikaze suicide trucks from factories to blow up opponents on the cheap. At the time ...

A man caught with improvised explosive devices who claimed he was preparing for a “zombie apocalypse” has been jailed for four years.
James Carson, 36, was arrested following a raid at his flat in Dunoon, Argyll and Bute.
Last month, he admitted a charge under the Explosive Substances Act and having an air rifle without a firearms certificate.
Bomb disposal ...

The explosive device went off near a police mobile van deployed for the security of polio workers
At least one policeman was killed and two injured on Tuesday when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near a police mobile van deployed for the security of polio workers in northwest Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, officials said.
This ...

Cuanza Norte Province, in the north-central region of Angola, has identified 125 suspected mined areas in 64 locations, including inhabited areas and agricultural fields, representing a danger to the safety of populations, according to the technician from the National Demining Institute (INAD) in the province, Chita Avelino. ,
Speaking to the press last Friday, Chita Avelino ...

Move over, sniffer dogs: now there are explosive-sensing grasshoppers. Barani Raman and his colleagues at Washington University in Missouri have tapped into the olfactory senses of the American grasshopper, Schistocerca americana, to create biological bomb sniffers.
In insects, olfactory receptor neurons in their antennae detect chemical odours in the air. In turn, these neurons send electrical signals to a ...

Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-linked violence continued to torment Maharashtra in 2019. According to partial data collated by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), 51 fatalities , were reported in 2019, adding to 58 such fatalities (five civilians, two SF personnel and 51 Naxalites) in 2018. No fatality ...

The European Union will launch a new naval and air mission in the eastern Mediterranean to stop more weapons reaching the warring factions in Libya, foreign ministers agreed on Monday, after Austria lifted its veto.
The decision marked a breakthrough after weeks of fruitless negotiations and warnings by EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell that the bloc risked ...

A Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) operator received the Silver Star for his actions in Iraq against Islamic State (ISIS) fighters.
In April 2019, Chief Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Technician Matthew J. O’Connor was attached to a Navy SEAL platoon as part of a Special Operations Task Force in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.
On the day of ...

Manipur police on Monday recovered a claymore IED allegedly RPF/PLA was planning to trigger at a place in Imphal with the arrest of three overground workers including a woman of the armed outfit.
Other items recovered along with IED were one remote control, one transmitter, two 9 volt batteries, eight 1.5 volt batteries connecting in series, ...

The security forces arrested 2 militants and detonated four suicide bombing vests during the operations in Kabul and Kandahar provinces.
The Special Operations Corps in a statement said the National Defense and Security Forces arrested two terrorists during a raid i Qarabagha district of Kabul.
The statement further added that the security forces arrested the two terrorists ...

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